France voted on Sunday in elections that could crown Francois Hollande as its first Socialist president in nearly two decades, marking a leftward shift at the heart of Europe and making Nicolas Sarkozy the region’s 11th leader to be toppled by the economic crisis.
Buoyed by a tide of anger at Sarkozy’s inability to rein in rampant unemployment during his five-year term, Hollande was between four and eight points ahead in final opinion polls for Sunday’s vote, which takes place alongside a Greek parliamentary election expected to punish leading parties for economic misery.
A wide margin of victory would give Hollande more authority to pursue his promise to push back a wave of unpopular German-inspired austerity in Europe, which brought hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets across the region last week, by refocusing on growth-orientated policies.
Read more: French election 2012: Nicolas Sarkozy faces defeat as France heads to polls | News | National Post
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